Citroën Grand C4 Picasso
Review

Citroën Grand C4 Picasso Video Review | CarsIreland.ie

The Citroën Grand C4 Picasso offers a lot of space at a good price, and can carry a large family around in comfort without boring you to tears.

“The Citroën Grand C4 Picasso offers a lot of space at a good price, and can carry a large family around in comfort without boring you to tears.”

Seats seven comfortably

Cheerful, practical interior

Good range of fuel efficient engines

80%

Overall Rating

MPV looks won’t be for everyone

Boot is quite small with all 7 seats in place

Still struggles with rep for reliability

Overall Rating

Overview

The Citroën Grand C4 Picasso is one of the most recognisable names and faces in the MPV market. It first arrived in 2006 and was an immediate hit here in Ireland thanks to its massive load carrying capabilities and ability to cater to larger families with its five and seven seat options.

It’s safe to say the looks have improved massively since those earlier models and it now comes with some very funky, modern styling on a package that claims to be more practical than ever.

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Interior Gallery

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Space & Practicality

The crux point for this car, and all in its bracket, is the all-important second row of seats. The C4 Picasso fares extremely well here. They are easy to access, and surprisingly comfortable – even for adult passengers. Leg and headroom are impressive, and noticeably better than that offered in its seven-seat SUV rivals. The large windows allow plenty of light into the cabin and make it feel more like a part of the car rather than an afterthought, as can sometimes be the case with an extra row.

The boot space with these seats in place, isn’t all that great, although still usable for a few soft bags or ‘messages’ as your mother might say. This increases to 645 litres when you fold them down, which is much more like it for carrying around all the stuff a larger family comes with.

The boot on the top spec Flair model comes with a very handy (or rather – handsfree) opening system which allows you to open it by waving your foot underneath if you have your hands full of shopping.

The five seat C4 Picasso is slightly shorter, comes without that back row and gets a very useful 537 litre boot as standard.

There’s great versatility in the way you can arrange the seats too. All three seats in the middle row are individually adjustable and foldable which creates lots of different storage possibilities, particularly for carrying longer items. All five seats can be folded flush to the floor to create an enormous, flat load area with no load lip. A perfect ten boot in our eyes.

The middle row is even better. Comprised of three full size individual seats, all three passengers can slide their chairs forwards and backwards, recline, and, in a small victory for middle children everywhere, there’s no real disadvantage to being in the middle seat because there’s no big hump in the floor. It also means you can mount three Isofix car seats in the one row – a surprisingly rare feature even in the family car market.

★★★★☆

Equipment and Safety

That’s the passengers covered, but what is there for the driver to play with? Plenty, as it happens.

The driver seat is an immediately pleasant place to sit into. Citroën always use a lot of glass, and the Picasso gets a great stretched back windscreen (which can be extended even further by shifting back the sun visors). The result is a bright and cheerful cabin which lets loads of light in and gives it an almost spacecraft effect. It’s comfortable too, with great supportive seating and plenty of adjustment to help you get comfortable behind the wheel.

All Picassos come very well equipped from the ground up. There are three models to choose from called Touch, Feel and Flair. The entry level Touch gets a good level of kit with 16 inch alloy wheels, a touchscreen multimedia system with Bluetooth phone connectivity, steering wheel mounted controls and a vast array of safety features like cruise control, parking sensors and driver fatigue warning.

But we would recommend you take a look at the mid-spec Feel because the features on offer are shockingly good. Aside from larger 17 inch wheels, a larger touchscreen, and lots more tech including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, there’s lots more useful family friendly stuff – a massage function for the weary backs in the front, a reversing camera, in-built sun blinds and lap trays in the back, and a handy little mirror so that you can keep an eye on what they’re up to back there.

★★★★★

Performance & Running Costs

The engine choice consists of a 1.2 litre 130 brake horse power Puretech petrol or a 1.6 litre Blue HDi diesel available in power outputs of either 100 or 120 brake horse power.

We had the Blue HDi 120 paired with an automatic transmission. There is a €1600 premium for this but it’s worth it in this case as it adds a nice effortless feel to the whole experience. When you’re carrying a bit of bulk around like you may well be in a Picasso, whether it be passengers or luggage, the automatic gearbox does help make things a bit more relaxing. It’s quite a nice set up too. The power delivery is smooth and quick and there always feels like there plenty of it available.

Despite the bulk it doesn’t feel too cumbersome on the road and the panoramic windscreen gives you fantastic visibility.

★★★★☆

Reliability & Residuals

Citroën hasn’t always had the best reputation when it comes to reliability. Build quality continues to improve and Citroën are now confident enough to stand over their products with a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty which should put some minds at rest in the knowledge that at least if something does go wrong, they will fix it.

Residual values won’t be as strong as some German rivals but that tends to be a moot point in this segment. Most people carriers stay with a family longer than this remains relevant.
Keeping all of this in mind, the Grand C4 Picasso offers a lot of space at a good price, can carry a large family around in comfort without boring you to death while it does so. It might be less of a looker than its SUV rivals but it’s endlessly more practical, and a bit more interesting.

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Sinéad is our resident car tester who has the unenviable (-ok, slightly enviable) task of reviewing all the latest new cars to hit the market. You can follow her on Twitter @smcani and on Instagram @whatshedrives